Chapter 5

Bob came around in a few minutes and Sally tended to his hand. Caleb looked him in the eye and said, "You've got two choices, Bob. The whiskey is busted up. There ain't no more of it. You can either promise me you'll not try to hurt anyone here and ride on into St Louis with us, or we'll give you a mule and you can leave now. Either way, St Louis is as far as you go with us."

"Pap, I ain't gonna make no promises about not hurting anyone. Jase shot me and he's gonna pay for it."

"No, he's not, Bob. If you make one move toward Jase, I'll kill you myself."

Caleb turned to Sally and said, "Make him up a pack of some food and get that old water skin out of the wagon. He can take his rifle, his powder horn and his shot pouch."

Sally went off to make up a pack for Bob and Bob made like he was gonna follow her. "No, Caleb said. You go over and sit against that wagon wheel while I get you a mule."

I think Bob was totally cowed because he did what his pap told him to. Caleb came back in a few minutes with a mule. He then got Bob's rifle and fired it into the air. "I don't want to see you loading that while you're within sight of this camp," he said. "Remember that Jase could knock you offa that mule at two hundred yards if he wanted to."

"But, Pap..."

"Don't you 'but pap' me. You were gonna shoot me over that damned whiskey. I don't ever want to see you again."

Caleb turned and walked off. Sally brought out a pack of food and his clothes and handed them to Bob. "Mam..." Bob started to say, but Sally cut him off. "You heard what your pap said. There ain't none of us that ever want to see you again. Now get on that mule and get."

Millie, Tess and I watched until Bob had ridden out of sight in the direction we had come from. "Thank you, Jase," Millie said. "I don't know what I'd have done if he had shot pap."

"Pap was right," Tess said with a giggle. "That was the best damned shooting I've ever seen."

Millie started giggling too. It was all I could do to keep from laughing with them.

What with everything that happened, we got a late start that day. We even talked about not traveling at all, but we decided that any distance we made would be better than none. There wasn't much happened the rest of the day. We were still going through hilly country and the going was a little slow. We ended up only making ten miles.

Caleb had to end up driving his wagon. Millie and Tess both mounted up and helped with the livestock. I was surprised at how well they did.

March 13, 1845

I had to go hunting again today. It took me a little longer but I got another deer. It was almost noon when I caught up to the wagons. At least the weather was pleasant.

Mam skinned the deer when we nooned and cut it up into quarters. Millie and me went off for a bit so we could kiss and cuddle. "Jase, have you thought about housekeeping stuff for us when we're married?" Millie asked me.

"No, I can't say that I have."

"Could we afford to buy a few things in St Louis for setting up house?"

"Yeah, I've still got quite a few pelts left. What did you have in mind? Do you have any idea how much it will all cost?"

"It's just the normal kitchen stuff, plus a wash tub and a couple of blankets. It could run as much as twenty dollars for everything."

I had to smile. I probably had at least a hundred dollars worth of pelts left. "We can do that, Love. If there's anything else that'd make life a little easier, we could get that too."

"Mam and pap will give me a lot of stuff. I expect yours will too. I just want some of our stuff to be ours alone."

I had a big smile on my face as I pulled her into a kiss. I loved this girl more every day and every day I was more impressed with her.

March 14, 1845

The next morning started out fine and clear. It was even a little warmer than it had been. Caleb complained about a sore ass from sitting on the wagon seat all day yesterday, so I told him pap was sitting on a cushion. He got a big smile and said maybe that'd help.

We made good time until it was time for nooning. We turned the oxen loose so they could graze and we fed ourselves. Millie, Tess and me were sitting, leaned back against a wagon wheel when I saw buzzards circling off to the northeast of us.

I always was a little more curious than was good for me, so I told Millie I was going to ride over and see what had attracted the buzzards' attention.

It was a little over a quarter of a mile to the center of their circle. What I found there turned my stomach. The young man who was lying, dead, beside a little stream couldn't have been any older than I was.

He had on homespun clothes, but his boots or shoes were missing. He was laying on his back and his chest was covered in blood. He didn't have a gun of any kind and there wasn't anything on him that told who he was.

About twenty feet away from him was a pretty little bay filly. She was saddled and was quietly cropping grass. I walked slowly over to her speaking softly to her as I went. She didn't shy away or flinch when I laid my hand on her.

I took hold of her reins and led her over by Sin. I tied her reins off to a bush and looked her over carefully. From the looks of the man, he'd been dead two or three days. That meant this little lady had been wearing that saddle all of that time.

I opened the saddlebag on her right side and found some jerky and a couple of stale biscuits. I went around to her left side and opened that bag. There were some gold coins in the bag, but nothing that would identify the owner. I took the coins out and counted them. There was $822.00 mostly in gold eagles.

I know my mouth had to fall open. I transferred the money to my saddlebags and mounted Sin. I took the filly's reins and headed back to the wagons. They were just getting ready to move out.

I waved Caleb down and when he saw the filly, he got down from his wagon. Millie and Tess came running up as I got down from Sin.

"Where'd you get the filly?" Caleb asked.

By now, pap and Silas had come over as well. "There's a young man laying dead over yonder. This filly was grazing close to him. He's been shot in the chest. I figure someone shot him and the filly ran away. Hell, whoever shot him even took his boots, so I know they'd have taken this pretty little filly."

"Do you know who he was?"

"No, there weren't nothing on him or on the horse that says who he was. It looks like he's been dead two or three days."

"Well, we oughta bury him, It looks like you got yourself a filly, Jase," Caleb said. The other men nodded.

"No, Caleb. It looks like Millie's got herself a filly," I said.

Millie grabbed me and hugged me right in front of everyone. "Honey, you need to get this saddle off of her and rub her down," I said. "She's had the saddle on for at least two or three days. Put a lead rope on her and hitch her to the farm wagon. She may not want to follow along at first."

Millie and Tess led the filly away and Caleb said, "Let me saddle Thunder and I'll help you bury him. Sally, can you drive the wagon for a spell, until we get this young feller buried?"

"Yeah, go ahead Caleb. We'll leave as soon as Millie gets her new horse taken care of."

Caleb saddled Thunder and we started toward where I'd left the man. "Caleb, there was some money in the saddle bags. Do you think I should keep it?"

"I don't know what else you'd do with it, Jase. Unless you want to bury it with the guy."

"It just don't seem right somehow, but I guess you're right. There weren't nothing on him that'd let us know who his next of kin is."

"I'm not going to ask you how much, but from the way you're acting it is more than a couple of dollars. Could that have been why he was killed?"

"I expect it was."

"I wouldn't tell anyone else about the money, Jase. I know Silas is honest and so is your pap, but either one of them could let something slip to someone who ain't honest."

"Yeah, I expect you're right. Sometimes pap talks way too much."

"I'm not saying you shouldn't tell Millie. You'd do that whatever I told you," he grinned. I had to grin too.

Neither one of us were grinning by the time we got the man buried.

When we stopped for the night, Millie dragged me over to show me the filly. Surprisingly enough, she didn't show any signs that wearing the saddle for as long as she had, had done any damage to her. I smoothed my hand over where the saddle would have fit and she didn't flinch.

"I think you should give her one more day of being led and then you can start riding her," I said.

Millie agreed. I think Tess was just as proud of the filly as Millie was.

Later on, after we had gone to bed, I told the girls I had something to tell them. "Before I tell you this, I need you to promise you won't tell anyone else about it. Not your mams or pap, or anyone."

Both of them promised.

"There was some money in the saddlebags of the horse when I found the man today," I told them.

"How much money?" Millie asked.

"There was $822.00," I said.

"Oh, my Lord in Heaven!" Millie said.

"That's a lot of money, Jase," Tess said almost reverently.

"Yep. It's enough to get the three of us set up real well."

"I can see why you don't want to let anyone know about it," Millie said.

"I'm afraid that's why he was killed. He probably let it slip to the wrong person that he was carrying a lot of money."

March 15, 1845

We started off with another bright, clear morning, but it clouded up before our nooning. It didn't start to rain though, so I guess we couldn't complain.

We made good time and I'd guess we got in around twenty miles. Tess asked me that evening if I knew anything about St Louis. I told her I didn't, but that I'd expect we'd have some time to explore it before we left on the trail.

March 16, 1845

We were all excited that morning. We figured it was only going to be a day or two before we got to St Louis. We had a quick breakfast and took off. The sky was overcast, but I didn't believe there was going to be any rain.

Millie was riding her new filly, which she had named Princess, because she was so pretty. When Millie brought her around, she was already saddled. I stood by as Millie mounted because I didn't know how she was going to react to a new rider. I needn't have worried.

I adjusted her stirrups for her, then mounted Sin. Millie touched her with her heel and Princess moved out. I'll swear that little filly pranced as she walked.